1618250 - Evaluate whether to allow tab navigation when top sites are forcibly opened

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Address Bar, task, P3)

Description

[Marco Bonardo [:mak] (Away Apr 25 - May 5)]

This is a case that Verdi presented us, it's still unclear whether we want to address it or not, because it would make the current outcome even harder to explain to QA and users, and less coherent.
The current outcome is that Tab doesn't navigate results if the urlbar is focused with the keyboard shortcut and there isn't a user typed search. So making this change would introduce a complication.

STR:

1. open a new tab
2. forcibly show top sites using CTRL+L

Actual:
Tab moves to the next toolbar item

Expected:
Tab moves through results

Comment 1

[Adrian Florinescu [:aflorinescu]]

The case described here is a edge case from bug 1616880.
I am marking this as a won't fix for 74 and affected for 75 based on:

• the discussion with :mak which stated this needs further investigation in regards to if or how to best address it
• the fact that browser.urlbar.update1 and browser.urlbar.openViewOnFocus are pref'ed off by default for 74, so this case will only be visible if switching both preferences on for a study/experiment

Please note that 74 is marked as won't fix instead of disabled to reflect the fact that this is a scenario that would be encountered in case of an experiment/study run on 74 which would switch both browser.urlbar.update1 and browser.urlbar.openViewOnFocus.

Comment 2

[G]

I like the push for consistency expressed in this ticket!

My personal preference (as a user) would be for Tab to always move to the next toolbar item, even if some typing has occurred in the address bar. In this case, down-arrow could still move down the list, and maybe the tab can wrap around to moving down the list after visiting other toolbar items.

But another way to fix it is to make it go down the list in the edge case described in this ticket. That is better than current behavior, true; but I wanted to cast my "vote" for an alternative.

Comment 3

[Adrian Florinescu [:aflorinescu]]

This might need to be brought back to limelight. It becomes very visible when additional things (e.g. google trending, quick actions) are present in addressbar in 0 prefix scenarios.